


Girl Like That (AKA The Liz Fic) Teaser: The Patronus Charm

by jalapeno_eye_popper



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2020-09-24
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:01:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26637754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jalapeno_eye_popper/pseuds/jalapeno_eye_popper
Summary: Here's a scene I started writing to explore some headcanon on the Patronus Charm. It's a small bit from an OC/SS epfic -- she's a musician and a soul healer, and the timing is the summer before HBP. Credit to the Beatles for some lyrics :)
Relationships: Severus Snape & Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 3
Collections: Girl Like That (AKA The Liz Fic)





	Girl Like That (AKA The Liz Fic) Teaser: The Patronus Charm

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Excerpted From "Girl Like That" (AKA The Liz Fic) Part 1 [Chapter 22: I Wake Up and French Kiss the Morning](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26687167/chapters/72786795)

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Soon they were back on the path to Hogsmeade, but Liz was looking for the dying aspen tree that marked her favorite side-track. When they finally approached, she took Severus by the hand and tugged him between the aspen and its neighboring pine, carefully planting her boots one step at a time, winding between more pines until they reached the clearing about thirty steps off the path.

The trees were so thick, they could not see back where they had been. It was the middle of the afternoon, but the sky was overcast, and the fog rolled in under foot, giving an eerie translucent blanket to the bed of dried brown pine needles.

"We should not be here." He drew her close and wrapped her inside his cloak with him. "The dementors are too close."

She smiled and leaned her head on his shoulder, murmuring into his ear. "They cannot touch me when I am with you."

He tightened his arms around her shoulders, and she slipped hers around his waist. Then he snorted. "I'll bet you bring all the boys here to whisper such sweetness."

Amazed by the tease in his voice, Liz chuckled. But then, low and even, she admitted, "It's a special place, but Kellan was too paranoid of getting caught here." She pulled back just long enough to smirk at him. "Hogsmeade weekends are busy, and you in particular take far too many House points for innocent snogging sessions."

He raised one eyebrow and pulled back a little farther. "Do I, now?"

She watched as he removed his cloak and laid it flat on the ground, but she replied, "Oh yes, and the not-so-innocent ones, too. Daphne was very upset this spring when you took fifteen points _each_ from her little fanclub playing Spin the Bottle."

Severus lowered himself slowly onto the cloak, stretching his long legs so the left laid flat and the right bent at the knee, foot planted firmly. He leaned back on his left palm and then gestured with his right arm as if inviting her to lounge with him.

Liz grinned and turned to drop her bum next to his hips, her left thigh draped over that left palm, pinning him by his own support. She boldly took his free hand and draped it around her own waist. Settled together, on his cloak, Liz sighed in contentment.

He said, "They had drunk that bottle first, and were well on their way through another. When I was that age, that game was all about the dare, but they had turned it into a drinking game, too."

"Hmm," Liz murmured. "Maybe if the toad hadn't restricted the sizes of our gatherings, even on Hogsmeade weekends, effectively banned all our clubs, and cracked down on curfew, then we wouldn't have been day-drinking in the common room. I was shocked when that included quidditch, even if she did eventually give the House teams a pass. I don't even like quidditch, but it keeps teenage boys active enough to stay out of my hair."

Severus scowled. "She made a lot of enemies that day. The staff agrees with you, mostly."

"Mostly?"

"Don't ask." 

For a minute, she simply leaned against him, breathing deeply the summer breeze and noting the chilly finish of the otherwise soothing fresh air. Then she asked quietly, "Any idea how long we have before the next crisis?"

"Honestly, I'm not even sure it will be today. I said that to Albus to get out of there faster. I told you the same earlier so you would not give away the ruse with the way your face is an open book."

Liz rolled her eyes, and they landed on her own hands in her lap. "I hate all the hurry-up-and-wait. I have things to do."

He stiffened.

"Like you," she winked, poking her tongue out to lick her lips.

Despite his posture relaxing, Severus scowled again. "At least the Dark Lord has a preference for the window between supper and midnight. The Headmaster's timing is all over the map. It's probably better that way, strategically, but it's bloody annoying."

Liz scowled, too, but it was at the rolling fog, which was thickening and bringing a chill to their lounging spot.

He tightened his grip on her shoulders and asked quietly, "Can you cast a patronus?"

She shook her head. "Not a corporeal one. I'm not so sure I have a memory suitably happy."

"It doesn't have to be a single memory. And _happy_ is a bit too broad to choose the most effective moment and feeling. _Joyous_ is rather closer. Maybe on the edge of _euphoric_. Though I have the experience against dark creatures, you are probably more in tune with the nuance of feeling. You should make many attempts, exploring that entire family of emotions. If I ever get my chance to teach Defense, I would welcome your opinion on this method of combating dementors."

This explanation helped a lot, actually. She had plenty of memories she _thought_ were happy, and she had worried about what that meant when faced with the formless wisps of her own patronus. And his idea for her study of the charm was a good one, as his ideas usually were.

As she pondered his words and her past experience, she could feel a little current of Air circling them. Noting the way the fog cleared in a meter radius around them, Liz smiled at Severus and said, "This moment might just be a little joyous, thinking about the ways we complement each other." She tipped her head down and drew her lips to a smile. "And it could be euphoric if you kiss me."

He obliged, and she closed her eyes as his hand rose up from her waist to wind through her hair and pull her closer. 

She locked this feeling into her memory. Leaning her hands on his cloak, pressing her lips to his, tasting that hint of mocha latte, the sound of her own breath loud in her ears, and the full-body high of her heart thundering with joy and anticipation.

Then she pulled back, drew her wand, and cast, " _Expecto patronum!_ "

It was hard to make out exactly which bird burst forth from her wand, and it circled the small clearing, rising higher and pushing out the radius of the fog as it chirped out a melodic song.

Liz closed her eyes and listened carefully. She knew that song, somehow. One of the birds in Marlena's garden, maybe.

Severus leaned in close and murmured in her ear. "A songbird. How predictable."

"Oh, hush," she scolded, and then giggled, holding out her hand out as a perch, almost the form of a formal greeting.

The magical bird glowed brighter and spiralled back down to the place where the two of them still sat on the ground, landing neatly on her finger. Though a patronus was always silvery-gray in color, she could easily imagine the right color on this one.

"Well aren't you just a little flute of a warbler?" She giggled again, and tilted her head toward Severus without taking her eyes off the animal. "A common blackbird, I think."

The bird pecked at her fingers.

Liz was oddly pleased to be chided thusly, and she grinned. "Sorry, sorry, there's nothing common about you, is there?" Then she drew a deep breath and called out in tune, " _Blackbird fly, blackbird fly... Into the light of a dark black night_."

It turned its little beak to point directly at Severus, and then it opened wide and blew her away with an exact reproduction of the words she just sang.

Gobsmacked, Liz watched as it launched and flew off, spiraling back up, singing its own trill when it reached the top and flew over the trees toward the walking path.

Her jaw was hanging open, so she snapped it shut and turned toward Severus. "Tell me that was normal and expected."

His eyes held a touch of the mirth she had felt a moment ago, and it calmed the slight uneasiness she felt in this moment. "Usually," he drawled, "for those who can even cast a corporeal patronus, it takes a little more practice to connect with your patronus in that way, but considering the power infused in your song, I would say that was normal and expected."

She breathed a little sigh of relief and then grinned, feeling again the joy and mirth that allowed her to cast and maintain such an apparition in the first place.

"It is useful for sending emergency messages across short distances, but it is a method which the Dark Lord knows is favored by the Order of the Phoenix."

Mirth squashed, she said darkly, "I see." What a shame that practicing such glorious magic must be weighed against the risk of retaliation from a Dark Lord who was probably incapable of feeling such joy. "Have you ever seen _his_ patronus?"

"No."

"Hmm, so what's _your_ patronus?"

His eyes narrowed, but he reached to wrap his free arm around her again. "Yours is better. Whenever we need one, you should cast it."

Despite the praise and affection, Liz could feel her expression sour. He hadn't answered her question, and she didn't exactly believe that she would have already passed his skill at this charm.

"The patronus is soul magic, _Healer Althea_ , which is just another reason I'm not surprised by the strength of yours. In fact, I am surprised you hadn't mastered the corporeal patronus long before today." He frowned, not quite all the way to a scowl. "It's a defense of your own soul against any evil that would drain you of it."

Liz suddenly wished Severus had been teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts all these years, as the rumors suggested he wanted, and as he himself had implied during this very conversation. Her professor on the subject of the Patronus Charm had been a Death Eater in disguise, distracted by a side-mission of delivering Potter to the Dark Lord, and never once demonstrating the charm himself. Her overall education on this essential field of study was fragmented at best, and she was getting just a bit angry thinking about it now. How many students -- children! -- had been robbed of the knowledge and skill to effectively defend themselves, when Severus was right there the whole time?

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading this teaser/excerpt from The Liz Fic! I am looking for alpha/beta readers to help me whip this 800k-word canon-compliant epfic into shape. If interested, you can check out my Beta Request Doc (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1e2Ek1a5-AgrfWPvZl0ojhcr3taTcVe7w8GhqvmfG1nk/) or jump straight into the Discord server (https://discord.gg/zR8HRKz). Please heed all content warnings. The teaser above is pretty tame, and the relationship is sweet, but a lot of EVIL stuff happens to these two. Thanks again!


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